🎙️ Interview with | Everyday Stocks
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Check out the previous interview here:
Everyday Stocks
As I follow more investors on X, I stumble on a hidden gem occasionally. Someone who simplifies investing makes it accessible for everybody, voices his opinion on cold, hard facts, and adds some humor—I am talking about Everyday Stocks! I’ve been following Everyday Stocks' content for quite a while, and he brought some new gems to my attention via his tweets. I felt no other option but to share this quality with you all; happy reading.
Thank you for taking part,
. You are an excellent addition to the investing community and you help investors of all ages and phases.In this interview, we will:
Get to know Everyday Stocks
Understand where his passion is coming from
Dive deeper into his investable universe
Get to know his investing methodology
Get insights into his risk strategy
Read how he handles criticism
And much, much more!
If you’re not yet following Everyday Stocks, check out his X & Substack:
Click here for Everyday Stocks X
Click here for Everyday Stocks Substack
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you? How old are you? Where are you from? What are your hobbies besides investing and content creation? What about education?
So firstly I’d like to say thanks for choosing me to do one of these interviews. It's an honor to know that you find my page on X valuable enough to be interested in talking. I go by Everyday Stocks on X and Substack. I'm 23 years old, born and raised in England. My hobbies besides Investing would be reading, running/weight lifting, Watching football (Big Arsenal fan), and playing poker. I believe poker is a game that can correlate nicely to investing as it comes down to calculating odds, understanding the value of your hands, knowing when to bet big, and knowing when to throw away your hands while also having a well-controlled temperament dealing with things out of your control going wrong. I’m reading every day without fail. It’s mostly books on investing and companies, shareholder letters, and Substack articles, but my bookshelf is full of non-investing books. I believe investing is an art in which it’s important to have hobbies away from the investing table as it keeps you from making unneeded moves and helps with time because, as we all know, time is the best friend of a great company, so doing nothing is a competitive advantage for us.
Can you share your background and what inspired you to start investing?
As for the background, it came down to my dad investing in individual stocks, so I was lucky enough to have this head start. In learning the process, I saw what he was doing, and it interested me right from the start. Before I knew it, I was obsessed with the process, and I’ve been investing for around 3 years now, possibly just over. I started buying UK dividend payers but quickly realized this wasn’t my path. I changed my approach to where I’m at now and have managed to outperform the index ever since, currently 2 years, which is nothing, but I hope to be able to say the same 10/20 years
What motivated you to create content about investing on and X (formerly Twitter)?
Honestly, it comes down to the fact that in the UK, especially in my area, saving is rare, let alone investing, so it can be a lonely road sometimes, and I wanted to build my community. I feel most investors on X don’t have many friends in their personal lives with whom they can have intellectual conversations about stock picking. Honestly, I also believe the future of X and Substack is bright; 10 years later, it would be nice to use it as a platform to research stocks full-time, publishing my thoughts and thesis as possibly a career path. It’s a long shot, but naturally, I try to view the process in decade increments in everything I do. But it’s important to remember that I always view myself as an investor before a content creator; I feel many accounts are lost in chasing impressions vs quality returns.
Can you delve into your journey and the key experiences that shaped your passion for investing? How did those experiences influence your investment philosophy?
Talking about stocks is a passion and a fire that burns inside me. As soon as I started, it instantly correlated with me that I had the chance to have joint ownership in some of the best businesses in the world. Some key experiences that come to mind are books: 100 Baggers, The Psychology of Money, The Warren Buffett Way, and shareholder letters. I've forgotten many books, but I’m trying to make the point that learning through reading probably shaped my philosophy most.
Also, studying some of my favorite Investors in-depth shaped and influenced my philosophy: Nick Sleep, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Peter Lynch, etc.
How would you define your overall investing philosophy, and how has it evolved?
My investing philosophy is based on buying high-quality companies at reasonable prices and holding them long-term. Some are growth stocks, and others are more mature, but they’ll all have strong moats, impressive management teams, and high-quality cultures growing aggressively with a long clear runway to reinvest capital at high rates of return. I mainly want to buy when sentiment is low, thus creating an asymmetric opportunity. Still, I’m not against paying a premium if the company has a clear runway to significantly increase intrinsic value over time. I like to run a concentrated portfolio as I believe this gives you an advantage in outperforming. Currently, I have 13 businesses in my portfolio. I’d like to reduce this to sub-10, but leaving positions for me is difficult.
Do you follow specific strategies, such as value investing, growth investing, or a mix? Why? How did you get into this way of investing
The best way to describe my portfolio would be growth at a reasonable price, but I have some Peter Lynch-style stocks within the UK that look pretty contrasted compared to my other stocks (currently I have two). I feel it’s important not to stick to one philosophy strictly, such as only growth or only dividends, because you miss opportunities; take dividend investors, for example, who wouldn’t touch Meta at $80 but started buying at $400 as soon as they announced a dividend. Had they seen the great opportunity it was in the moment and sacrificed the dividend, they’d have a monster yield when they announced the dividend and huge gains.
How do you assess risk in your investments, and how do you determine what level of risk you’re comfortable with? Has there been a time you took too much risk or too little risk?
I think it all just comes down to your process and research. If you’ve done the homework correctly, the risk is reduced naturally, but if you dive blindly into stocks, you're at high risk. I’ve made this mistake in the past, but now my research process is much deeper. I’ll never rush decisions nor invest in anything I can’t understand.
What role does patience play in your investment decisions? How do you train yourself or keep yourself accountable to stay patient?
Patience is everything, as I mentioned at the start. Having hobbies away from investing can help immensely, but you also need the right mindset. Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what can be done in a decade. The more patience you have and the less tempted you are to make decisions, it’s likely your performance will significantly improve as long as the needed research is done upfront.
What does your research process look like when evaluating a potential investment?
My process for researching a stock can take a lot of time. First, I need to be interested in the stock; otherwise, it won’t go anywhere. I’ll go through the process of asking myself
Do I understand the company?
What's the Gross Margin like? Is it high and/or expanding meaningfully?
Does the FCF (Free Cash Flow) margin impress me and/or is it expanding?
How’s revenue growing?
Is FCF (Free Cash Flow) per share growing impressively? because I’m a big believer in stocks tracking FCF (Free Cash Flow) per share over time.
What’s the ROIC (Return On Invested Capital) like?
What’s the balance sheet like? I like companies with no debt
I want to learn about management. Am I impressed with the management? inside ownership ideally needs to be high. Are they good capital allocators?
What's the culture like? All the companies I invest in need a culture focused on innovation and customer satisfaction. Management and culture are the DNA of companies, and this is what drives success in the long run.
Does the company have a strong moat? If not, it’s pointless investing
Is there a long runway? Long runway for growth, reinvesting capital, AND a long-term vision from myself and management. I’ll buy nothing I don’t ideally want to hold for 10 years and find out if management feels the same.
does the company have a large TAM?
Is the valuation reasonable? Do they have the ability to significantly increase intrinsic value over time? Do I view it as an asymmetric opportunity?
I’ll research the company in any way possible, including its IR page, shareholder letters, conference calls, podcasts, substack write-ups, business biographies, etc.
How do you decide when to buy or sell a stock? Are there specific indicators you rely on?
If the company ticks most of these boxes and I connect with the company instinctually, it just feels right; then I’ll gladly make my move and hopefully not need to sell this stock. If I realize the thesis is busted or I was wrong, I will not hold around selling. This is a tricky situation, but the opportunity cost is real, so if I’m low on investable capital and see a better opportunity, I will make a sale to fund something else, but I try my best to minimize this move.
Do you use quantitative metrics, qualitative factors, or both in your analysis?
It's a mixture of both, but I prefer qualitative investing. These are the factors that build moats and drive intrinsic value over time. When viewed from a qualitative perspective, most of my portfolio is made up of some of the highest-quality companies.
How the company is, how the MOAT is made up, the user experience, the culture, and the management team will drive value. You can’t enter culture into your DCF (Discounted Cash Flow, valuation method for stocks), but the truth is that stocks track culture over time.
Are there specific industries, sectors, or geographies that you prefer to invest in? Why?
I’ll always make sure to stay within my circle of competence; when it comes to industries, I believe I do my best work investing in consumer-facing tech companies such as META 0.00%↑ , SPOT 0.00%↑ , UBER 0.00%↑ , SHOP 0.00%↑ , NFLX 0.00%↑ , DUOL 0.00%↑ , AMZN 0.00%↑ and so on. I believe these companies have strong moats, easy-to-understand and gauge sentiment, pricing power, and the ability to continually increase ARPU. I also invest and research mainly in fintech, B2B SaaS companies, Cybersecurity, AI, e-commerce, and renewable energy. These areas are mainly where I’m looking for opportunities. Region: I’m open to anything. I have a portfolio that combines US stocks with European, Latam, and British companies.
US stocks speak for themself
I like European stocks, mainly those from the Netherlands (Adyen, ASML and Booking Holdings), Swedish stocks like Spotify and Evolution (although listed in the US like Booking Holdings), and Poland, a promising region with good names.
Latin America, I look at Nubank and MercadoLibre as the clear best options
Canada has some stocks I like Constellation Software, Brookfield, and Shopify
Southeast Asia is also excited about Grab and SEA Ltd.
In regards to the UK, I take the Peter Lynch style of investing as it’s easiest to judge close to home; Greggs is a high-street bakery that doesn’t sound exciting on paper, but if you’ve seen the endless queues and the love the UK has for food, you’d realize how great that company is, for example.
How do you approach understanding and evaluating companies in industries you’re less familiar with?
If I struggle to understand or value a company, I have zero shame placing it in the “too hard ” pile.
Before investing, what qualities or traits do you look for in a business or its leadership team?
I touched on this earlier when discussing culture and the management team, but to summarize, an impressive culture combined with a relentless focus on product quality, innovation, and delivering exceptional value to customers is key. Importantly, providing more value than customers perceive they’re paying for fosters strong customer relationships. Think of companies like Amazon and Spotify—they’ve mastered the art of building such a deep connection with their users that they effectively own a share in the user’s mind.
Can you share an example of an investment you consider a mistake and what you learned from it?
My main mistake was following somebody into a microcap because the story sounded great; the company was in renewable energy, replacing coal with replica coal made of timber, thus becoming renewable. Long story short, the company went bust. This was at the start of my journey, and I quickly learned to stay away from microcaps and do my research properly; luckily, this mistake wasn’t expensive. I also feel inclined to say with my understanding and usage of Netflix, I feel not investing when the stock was beaten down heavily was also a huge mistake in hindsight.
What’s been your most successful investment, and what do you attribute its success to?
My best investment is Palantir's $PLTR, which I initially bought at $7 and has an average of $13.50, and the stock trades at $67. It’s clear the stock has run up massively at this time and isn’t tied entirely to business fundamentals but sentiment around AI. However, it is clear they are one of the best AI/data players, and now the market has recognized this. Before the run-up in $PLTR, my best Investment was buying $META at $100, which now trades at $574. Both comprise large portions of my portfolio because I don’t believe in trimming your winners.
How do your values influence your investment decisions?
It’s a good question if you mean ethnically or politically. I try to block out all that and focus on the business, so I’m not against investing in so-called sin stocks if it makes sense. For example, I like both DraftKings and Evolution, but I’m not invested in them. I am invested in Meta, which some people believe to be a sin stock due to its addictive approach, but business is business always 🙂
Do you believe investing is more of an art or a science? Why?
It’s a blend of art and science, but I’d say more art because it is related to seeing a company's roadmap and realizing its qualitative advantages. If it were all just about numbers, the highest IQs would always succeed, but they don’t
What advice would you give someone just starting their investing journey, based on your experience?
You can never do too much research. Stick to companies you truly understand and believe in. If you don’t want to dedicate endless time to stock picking, then DCA weekly/monthly into low-cost index funds, and you’ll do great. Stock picking isn’t a part-time hobby. You have to continually follow your companies and almost have it subconsciously in your mind, so if this isn’t your reality, ETFs are amazing.
⚡Lightning round
Would you rather invest in a high-growth, unproven startup with immense potential or a stable, slow-growing company with consistent dividends? Why? I'd probably choose the fast-growing start-up because I’m younger and can afford to take more risks. However, the unproven part makes me uneasy, so I’m unsure.
If you could only invest in one sector for the next 10 years, which would it be and why? Consumer-facing tech companies because I have the best feel for them. I'm tempted to say E-commerce because I could buy some quality names (AMZN MELI SHOP SEA CPNG). That portfolio, I imagine, would go well long term, but no, I’ll go with my first pick because, for me, that’s the most predictable.
What if you were given $10 million to invest today but couldn’t touch it for 20 years—how would you allocate it? I’d do exactly what I’m doing now because I don’t intend to take the money out anytime soon. I’d possibly slightly change for some dividend yields to receive income to live off so I could research stocks full-time on that money, but I’m not sure if that’s cheating the question, LOL. Either way, my philosophy wouldn’t change.
Would you rather have perfect foresight into market trends or a personal mentor who is always right about individual stocks? I would probably choose a personal mentor to bounce ideas back and forth. Two minds are greater than one, especially if they are always right.
If you had to choose between a portfolio of 5 handpicked companies or a single index fund for life, which would you pick and why? 5 handpicked stocks because I could pick 5 unbreakable moat companies with no real competition at reasonable prices and I believe over the long term the quality names like Meta, Amazon (I’d want Costco and Ferrari also but valuation is tricky) and so on would outperform the Index, because in a way names like this are essentially alternatives to the Index themself.
✅ Do’s and ❌ Don’ts
Do’s
Let your winners run
Spend as much time learning
Have hobbies outside of investing
follow a process
have a long-term mindset
Don’ts
Trim your winners for gains or bounce in and out of stocks because that is called ‘‘timing the market’’.
FOMO into stocks.
divert from the circle of competence.
blindly buy a stock because an investor or someone on the internet owns it
become associated with one stock on social media, judgment will get blinded, and you’ll struggle to exit the position if you need to.
That is it for today!
Thank you again, Everyday Stocks, for your honest, transparent, and well-thought-out answers. As I said in the intro, follow Everyday Stocks on all his platforms; the links are at the top of this article.
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